We’re always trying to find ways to make our little gardens an oasis for creatures of all shapes and sizes (minus the big rodent like white tailed deer, we could live without them). We put up birdhouses and put out seed for our feathered friends. We have boards and rocks and upturned pots around the gardens for toads, salamanders and snakes. We have bamboo for native bees and a hive of honeybees. We have saucers filled with rocks and water for all the small insects, birds, and other creatures. One thing we’ve been lacking is a small pond for frogs.
My sister had this pond in her house when she moved in and didn’t want it. My parents took it to their house and installed it in their gardens. After several years they decided they wanted a bigger one. Naturally, this one then was handed down to us. We’ve had it for a year or two and could never decide where to put it (not to mention muster up the energy to dig a hole in our rocky soil large enough for it).
We finally figured out where to put it. Last year we cut down a crabapple tree in the front yard that was languishing. I think it was diseased or something, it never looked healthy and all of our attempts to give it manure and prune it were thwarted by more ugliness and lack of blooms. Last week Mr Chiots decided to dig up the stump. We were left with a large hole and thought it would be perfect for our “new” pond. Sure enough the pond almost fit, a little more digging and it looks like we’ll have a pond in the gardens soon.
My parents have a nice sized small pond and a second big detention basin filled with fish and frogs (photos above and below). We’ll be able to get a few water plants off them and a few tadpoles. I may even buy a fish or two for it. Our nieces and nephew think grandma & grandpa’s ponds with fish are great. Every time they go to my parents for a visit they have to go out and see the fish & frogs in both ponds.
I’m hoping this will help attract even more varieties of species to our gardens. Not to mention it will be a nice feature in the front garden!

Wow, sometimes it trips me out how our wavelengths are crossed so often: it is my mission to install a ‘pond’ this year. I’d like to use a recycled galvanized tub, either long and narrow or just small little circular one, and stick a small fountain and some plants/fish into it. Try as i might i can’t find a used tub anywhere! I will keep trying, and hopefully soon i’ll have a haven for more critters myself.
.-= Miranda´s last blog ..Pickled Eggs and a Kimchee State of Mind =-.

Hello Mr. and Mrs. Chiot. I am so happy to hear about y’all water feature. We added one this year as well. I haven’t taken any photos as we don’t have a pump yet. In fact, that is what I was curious about. What kind of pump are y’all using. We decided to use a solar pump and went with a company called Solar Source. Please, please, please, if you choose to go the solar route DO NOT use this company. They have already pulled the money off our charge card but have listed the product as “backordered” for almost two months now and we have yet to be able to get a sales associate on the phone line to speak with us. It is very frustrating and now we have a water feature that is lacking only a pump.

I would love to hear what y’all are doing (we can’t run electric to this area as it would interfere directly with our septic line) and even what some other readers are doing with solar!

I don’t know if we’re going to use a pump. My parents have never used on and they’ve never had issues. I do have a small electric powered submersible I might use if needed for the moment before looking into something else.

We love ponds…it’s so easy to get addicted, though! We dug our big (it’s big for us) pond about 12-14 years ago, and have dug a blog and 2 tiny pondlets since.
It gives you such a sense of peace to have still water around, and the singing of the frogs is just wonderful.
The only fly in the ointment has been the deer, who displace the edge stones when they’re going in for drinking water, and we have to get all dolled up in a wetsuit & fish them out. Of course, a cemented edge would solve that, but we don’t think cement’s much fun.
:-)

We had a pond once. I’m actually scared of fish (dumb thing to be scared of, I know). So, I don’t care to have it myself. However, even I got excited when our cheapo fish mated with each other and had many babies. How can babies not be exciting? We had a huge lurker fish we didn’t even know about for years! We found out about him when he almost ate someone’s arm off (or at least that’s what was going on in my head!). The kids did LOVE it! I even grew to at least like it, sometimes! I hadn’t thought about having one for frogs too. I’m not sure they’d live in Phoenix. Now, that…the kids would love!
Rebecca@RootsAndWingsCo
.-= Rebecca @RootsAndWingsCo´s last blog ..Thanks For Giving A Hoot-Teacher Appreciation Day Gift =-.

We don’t have any water features but live on a lake – with a road between our front yard and the water – so that sorta counts. I really wish I could attract some toads to my garden areas to help keep down the spider population. I was weeding and prepping the gardens this evening and the spiders are more than plentiful! I know they are somewhat beneficial…but there’s got to be a limit! I would love to attract more beneficial and beautiful critters to my gardens – but the neighbor’s cat keeps the bird population down and butterflies aren’t plentiful (though I’ve seen more this year than year’s past). I’ve also worried that if I start feeding the birds, I’d have to keep it up over winter – and I’m a bit lazy for that! Good luck on your pond – keep us posted!
.-= Bonnie´s last blog ..Ginger Ale =-.

One very neat pond! I think I’ll refrain from water features for now – especially in light of Middle Tennessee suddenly becoming one of the new Great Lakes…
.-= Dave´s last blog ..The Tennessee Flood of 2010 Part 1 =-.

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This is a daily journal of my efforts to cultivate a more simple life, through local eating, gardening and so many other things. We used to live in a small suburban neighborhood Ohio but moved to 153 acres in Liberty, Maine in 2012.